Kentucky’s Republican governor, Matt Bevin, came under criticism from state Democrats on Friday for suggesting that teachers on strike were to blame for the shooting of a 7-year-old girl who had stayed home because of school closures. The remarks were the latest to ignite controversy for the governor, who faces low approval ratings ahead of […]

Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy, will head to the ballot boxes on Wednesday for a largely unremarkable general election. The two presidential candidates — President Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto, a former army commander — also faced off five years ago. The gap between them on major policy issues has since narrowed, but the president’s […]

Andrew Gillum has more free time than he would like. After losing his bid for Florida’s governorship by less than one half of a percentage point, Mr. Gillum, the former Tallahassee mayor, is now carefully planning his next steps amid speculation that he would run for president. On Wednesday, he announced he will not join […]

JAKARTA, Indonesia — When Joko Widodo, the incumbent president of Indonesia, last year chose Ma’ruf Amin as his running mate for the general election this April, it became clear that Indonesian politics is now backed into a corner. Mr. Ma’ruf is an Islamic cleric and scholar, and Mr. Joko was perhaps hoping to dampen attacks […]

As politicians across the country demand a change in Virginia’s embattled leadership, business leaders are largely sticking to the sidelines. Leading Virginia business groups have stopped short of calling for the resignation of the state’s top three elected officials, all embroiled in personal scandals. Most corporate executives have avoided weighing in at all. And there […]

RICHMOND, Va. — The besieged Democratic governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, began to emerge from his defensive crouch on Tuesday, and signaled through his diminished corps of allies that he believed he could remain in office and, perhaps, prove that he did not appear in a racist photograph more than 30 years ago. The governor, […]

WASHINGTON — Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost her race in November to be Georgia’s governor, delivered the Democrats’ official response to President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night by outlining the party’s vision for lower health care costs and a more inclusive immigration policy, and pressing her case that access to the […]

RICHMOND, Va. — The besieged Democratic governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, began to emerge from his defensive crouch on Tuesday, and signaled through his diminished corps of allies that he believed he could remain in office and, perhaps, prove that he did not appear in a racist photograph more than 30 years ago. The governor, […]

RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia, abandoned by allies in the Democratic Party and besieged by demands that he resign, met with his cabinet Monday morning as state legislators returned to a Capitol thrown into chaos by the governor’s insistence on staying in office despite revelations that a photograph showing people in blackface […]

RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia, abandoned by allies in the Democratic Party and besieged by demands that he resign, met with his cabinet Monday morning as state legislators returned to a Capitol thrown into chaos by the governor’s insistence on staying in office despite revelations that a photograph showing people in blackface […]

The night of his election in 2017 as governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam spoke of America’s racial fault lines, which he said were exacerbated by the White House and had inflamed his own contest. “Virginia has told us to end the divisiveness, that we will not condone hatred and bigotry — and to end the […]

WASHINGTON — In the years after Republicans swept state and congressional elections in 2010, legislatures in 25 states — all but a handful of them dominated by the party — enacted laws that made it harder to register and vote, from imposing ID requirements and curbing voter registration drives to rolling back early voting periods. […]

FOX CROSSING, Wis. — Scott Walker, rejected by Wisconsin voters in his quest for a third term as governor, has spent recent days trying to define how his eight years in office are remembered. He posted 21 tweets in 25 minutes, each starting with “OUR LEGACY” and listing an accomplishment. Facing angry accusations on Facebook, […]

MADISON, Wis. — Last spring, after Wisconsin Democrats seized a state legislative seat long held by Republicans and sent a liberal justice to the State Supreme Court, Republicans began to worry. Gov. Scott Walker, preparing to seek a third term, warned his fellow Republicans on Twitter of the “risk of a blue wave” and publicly […]

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Republicans, following the tactics of conservative lawmakers in Wisconsin, moved on Thursday to start limiting the power of the incoming Democratic secretary of state and set the stage for additional curbs on the Democrats who will take over as governor and attorney general in January. The G.O.P.-led State Senate in Michigan, […]

Do not believe that we are still living in a functioning democracy. We are not. Republicans across this country are doing everything they can to impede, alter and override the power of the personal vote. This strikes at the very heart of democracy, both undermining people’s faith in it and contorting it until it no […]

MADISON, Wis. — After losing top state offices in the midterm elections, Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin were racing on Tuesday to push through a series of bills that would diminish the power of the incoming Democratic governor before he’s sworn in. Angry Democrats were gathering at the State Capitol for a tense showdown and a […]

Late Friday afternoon, less than a month after a Democrat, Tony Evers, defeated Scott Walker, the incumbent Republican governor, Robin Vos, the Republican Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly, followed through on his threat to strip the new governor of some of his power. That day, an assembly committee released five bills that grant sweeping […]

MADISON, Wis. — Facing the prospect of sharing political power for the first time in almost a decade, Republicans in Wisconsin are racing to set new limits on the authority of Democrats who will soon take over the offices of governor and attorney general. It was the latest effort by leaders of a state to […]

ATLANTA — Allies of Stacey Abrams, the Democrat who narrowly lost the Georgia governor’s race, filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday calling for sweeping changes to the state’s election procedures, and accusing Brian Kemp, the Republican victor, of systematically disenfranchising poor and minority voters when he was secretary of state. The litigation is a postscript […]